USA - Navigation has become treacherous as the worst US drought in half a century brings water levels close to record lows. The worst drought in half a century has brought water levels in the Mississippi close to historic lows and could shut down all shipping in a matter of weeks.

USA/TURKEY - Planned deployment of US-made Patriot missiles in Turkey is a "provocative" action which could bring about "uncalculated" results, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday. "The deployment of Patriot missiles will achieve nothing but to provoke and, God forbid, result in being forced into an uncalculated action," Ali Akbar Salehi said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency. "This is very dangerous for everyone, and even for the future of Europe," he said. At the request of Turkey, NATO has agreed to provide Patriot missiles to bolster its member's border defences amid tensions with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But both Russia and Iran, the most powerful allies of the Assad regime, are opposed to the move.

UK - Liam Fox and Boris Johnson point to emerging public consensus on a new EU-UK relationship centred on the single market. Speaking at a joint Open Europe-RUSI event, former Defence Secretary the Right Honourable Dr Liam Fox argued that: “I believe that a new consensus is beginning to build inside the UK… politicians are [increasingly] beginning to catch up with the public’s attitude which points towards a new, looser and largely economic relationship with the European Union.”

ITALY - When Mario Monti took the helm a year ago, with Italy teetering on the edge of a Greek-style debt crisis, he was welcomed as a savior who could finally put the country back on track. Disgusted with the scandals, corruption and cronyism that had flourished under Silvio Berlusconi, workers and businessmen at first meekly accepted the technocrat premier's higher taxes and harsh pension reform, confident he would guide them out of the euro zone debt storm into calmer waters. A year later, after [Mr] Monti announced his resignation, many are wondering whether it was worth the pain as Italy faces an uncertain political future still mired in recession.

UK - David Cameron has been told he cannot “repatriate” powers from Brussels to Britain because membership of the European Union is “for life”. The French President, Francois Hollande, declared that Europe is not “a la carte” like a menu from which member states can pick and choose their powers. He issued his rebuke to the Prime Minister as Mr Cameron insisted he would fight for a “better deal for Britain” and seek to take back certain powers from Europe. Downing Street was not impressed by the French President's intervention.

BRUSSELS, EUROPE - EU leaders have agreed on a roadmap for eurozone integration beyond the deal on centralised banking supervision, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Specific dates have not yet been agreed for the phases of integration. But the EU summit chairman, Herman Van Rompuy, said a deal should be reached next year on a joint resolution scheme for winding up failed banks. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the eurozone countries were committed to protecting the euro, but deeper integration involved big sovereignty issues. "I personally believe Britain won't ever join, certainly not while I'm prime minister," he said.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - The Western Wall and the State of Israel will forever belong to the Jews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night, as he lit the eight candles of Hanukkah at the Wall, in Jerusalem’s Old City. Dating from the Second Temple era, the Western Wall, or Kotel, is the only remnant of the outer wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple, the holiest site in Judaism.“I want to tell them from the closest possible place to the [Hanukkah] miracle of the jar of oil: The Western Wall has been ours for 3,000 years, and it and the State of Israel will be ours forever,” [Mr] Netanyahu said.

USA - The Journal Reports that in March a debate was had within the White House around whether a “dragnet” of citizen records should be created. The changes also allow databases of US civilian information to be given to foreign governments for analysis of their own. In effect, US and foreign governments would be using the information to look for clues that people might commit future crimes. “It’s breathtaking” in its scope, said a former senior administration official familiar with the White House debate.

PHILIPINES - The number of people killed after Typhoon Bopha struck the southern Philippines has risen to more than 1,000, officials say. With nearly 850 people still missing, the toll is likely to rise further, Civil Defence chief Benito Ramos said. The storm struck the Philippines on 4 December, with the southern island of Mindanao worst affected. Many of those still unaccounted for are fishermen who went to sea before the storm hit. The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused severe damage to property and infrastructure.

USA - Today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an ardent gun control advocate, moved to politicize the monstrous school shooting in Connecticut, issuing the following statement: "With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe.

BEIJING, CHINA - A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China on Friday, state media reported, the latest in a series of attacks on schoolchildren in the country. The man attacked the children at the gate of a school in Chenpeng village in Henan province, the Xinhua news agency reported. There have been a series of attacks on schools and schoolchildren around China in recent years. The rash of violence has prompted public calls for more measures to protect the young in a country where many couples only have one child.

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, TURKEY - The United States authorized on Friday the deployment of 400 troops for two Patriot missile-defense batteries along Turkey’s border with Syria, a move that could put American forces near the front lines of the Arab country’s escalating civil war. Defense Secretary Leon E Panetta signed the order authorizing the deployment of the batteries Friday morning while flying from Kabul to this military base in southern Turkey. Speaking to US airmen inside a hangar, [Mr] Panetta said the crisis in Syria has made this base, roughly 60 miles from Syria, and others in the region exceptionally important. “This is a challenging time, a critical time,” [Mr] Panetta said. “You are in a critical place doing a critical task.”

EUROPE - European leaders agreed to press on with further steps to shore up their finances and sustain momentum in tackling the debt crisis on Friday, a day after clinching a deal on banking supervision and approving long-delayed aid to Greece. After more than eight hours of late-night talks at a summit in Brussels, leaders promised to push ahead with setting up a mechanism to wind down problem banks, although it was unclear when the facility would be completed. They also launched tentative discussions on how to make countries stick to economic targets and on creating a "solidarity fund" to help member states suffering one-off economic shocks, but did not delve deeply into either issue, pushing the debate out to the middle of next year.

UK - The BBC should feature more lesbian, gay and bisexual people in children’s television, a report has found. It should be “more creative and bolder” in how it depicts lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people across all platforms, taking care to avoid stereotypes, the review said. The study, commissioned by the BBC, found that although there has been a gradual improvement in the level of representation of LBG people, they were “still relatively invisible” in the media. An expert panel said the corporation should use children’s programming to help “familiarise audiences through incidental portrayal from an early age” as well as validating older children who may be LGB.

SYRIA - Desperation for food is growing in parts of Syria, where fist fights or dashes across the civil war front lines have become part of the daily struggle to secure a loaf of bread. Conditions are especially dire in the northern city of Aleppo, where civilians enduring incessant clashes and air raids in rebel-held districts say hunger is a new threat to survival in the 20-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.